I'm not a huge music video aficionado, but Mr C tends to point out those that catch his eye whenever he spots them. Recently, a new video from Kelly Clarkson emerged, for her single People Like Us, and it's worth a look... for the wrong reasons. There's an odd story about saving a colourful child from a world of black and white, but that's not what I saw. I'm fully …

Here's my random thoughts, in no particular order, about events in Ambridge in May: Kirsty boosts Tom's morale when he really needs it, let's hope he's not going to have any rebound feelings in that direction. It would just be embarrassing for everyone involved. Josh gets a loan from his parents so he can buy a share in the chicken business, which puts Pip's nose out of joint. She gets …

I've fallen a bit behind on trailers for upcoming films (or those coming soon to iTunes that I have yet to be aware of). That being the case, here's a bumper crop of five trailers that recently caught my eye. Elysium A good bout of action, set in the future, with a dystopian Earth and Matt Damon? Sign me up right now. And what do I like just as much …

Starting with the good news, I reached the halfway point of the "500 kilometres in one year" challenge. It's quite a big achievement for me to have reached the middle mark, especially considering the slow start to the year I had! The gap between actual and target is also very heartening. The bad news is that running at the moment is a complete nightmare. There's a big leap in that …

It was confirmed yesterday that Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who at the end of the year, after taking part in the 50th anniversary celebrations and a Christmas special that will feature the regeneration. I had pondered recently whether it was time for the show to have the change and shake-up that comes with a new Doctor, and it seems those in the know are on the same page. Three …

I'm always intrigued by the desire to live in compact spaces - whether it is seeing how they manage to fit impressive buildings into small pockets of land on Grand Designs, or a great layout on a narrow boat. Today I stumbled across this video from Gizmodo, in which there is some great design thinking on display to make the most of zero space in a New York City apartment. …

Football is still mostly a mystery to me, but I occasionally find matches on TV and leave them on so I can soak it up via osmosis. This weekend, the Champions League final was on TV, and we watched Bayern Munich - the only German team I have heard of - play another German team. At one point I recognised the name Schweinsteiger but that's about as far as it …

Recently, Mr C played me a music video that showed nothing but the lyrics of the song in question. I was a bit disappointed, thinking it was just like Adele's Skyfall video. Whilst that was quite Bond, and an interesting experiment, I thought a video of only the lyrics was a bit... lazy. However, it turns out that there's a craze for Official Lyrics Videos that run alongside their more …

When Will Smith appeared on Graham Norton last time, he did the rap from Fresh Prince and it was brilliant. This time, he goes a step further. At first, it's like... yeah, he's rapping with his kid, that's cute. Then he does the Fresh Prince bit again. And then, it gets magical. I almost welled up, it was so good.

I vividly remember watching the episode of Sex and the City where they finally revealed Mr Big's name. It was such an intense letdown that I couldn't believe it had been given the go ahead to be screened. I was so disappointed, and I wasn't even that big a fan of Carrie and co. Thus, I approached this episode of Doctor Who with some trepidation, worried they would reveal our …

I always appreciate a unique and amusing way of getting a message across. I also appreciate Matt Damon. This video, and the mission behind it, is win-win!

It wasn't long into my Film Watch experiment that I faced the question of "What constitutes a film?" I had made notes on something that I watched via the iPlayer and then after a little bit of investigation, I found it was a made-for-TV movie. This made it less appealing to me in terms of Film Watch-ing it, and I decided not to publish it. From then on, I decided …

A couple of weeks on from watching Mission to Lars, Mr C and I settled down to watch another documentary film. This time, it was Side By Side - a film in which Keanu Reeves talks to a lot of directors, cinematographers, producers, actors and the like about the evolution from film to digital when it comes to making movies. Once again I didn't think I was going to like …

Expectations couldn't be anything but high for this episode of Doctor Who. The Cybermen were promised to be back - bigger and better, but hopefully less colourful than the Daleks 2.0 - and it was also a return to the series for Neil Gaiman, after his incredible episode, The Doctor's Wife. Although the man himself spoke of how different this episode would be, I was still anticipating good things. And …

I've been joyously listening to the new podcast from Molly Wood and Tom Merritt, called It's a Thing. They were so good together on Buzz Out Loud and it was a shame when they went their separate ways, but onwards and upwards, the glorious duo are back together! This time, it's not specifically technology topics, they just talk about whatever they deem to be an up and coming trend, or …

It's been Mr C's turn to come up with something for us to do on a day out for a while now. With a sunny bank holiday approaching, he said he finally had something in mind, so we hopped in the car. I'm not good with surprises, but he wouldn't tell me where we were going. After navigating us this way and that, he admitted that I shouldn't really get …

I have recently been looking at magazines on the Newsstand, and investigated the digital version of the BBC's GoodFood magazine. Considering most of my recipes tend to come from the BBC or their GoodFood equivalent, this seemed like a natural extension. In my first issue, I stumbled across this recipe for a lighter Bakewell tart. It being "lighter" didn't bother me all that much, but I suddenly had a craving …

Knowing this episode was written by Mark Gatiss and was set in Victorian Britain, I was fully expecting his brand of gothic horror to be stamped all over it. I hadn't expected it to be quite so disturbing, but it was an episode that stood up for itself very well, despite very little alien or sci-fi meddling. The highlights of the episode were, of course, provided by Madame Vastra, Jenny …

Helen persuades her mum and dad to think seriously about Tom's proposal, and after a bit of debate, Pat eventually comes round. The timing couldn't be better, as they agree to sell the cows and make all his dreams come true just as Brenda decides to break his heart. I thought the break-up was done very well, although slightly weird. Am I the only one who thought it odd they …

Mr C rented the documentary Mission to Lars from iTunes, and settled down to watch it one evening. I sat, aloofly, browsing magazines on my iPad, mostly ignoring the TV. I've never managed to get into documentary films - for whatever reason they fail to grab my attention when it comes to trailers and thus I never really get round to giving them a go. The only documentary I can …

All the videos we've seen from those Russian dash cameras have been dramatic/explosive/terrifying. Here, a slice of the nicer side of humanity.

So, having read Les Miserables and followed it up with World Without End, two of the longest books on the planet, I suddenly realised how many books I have sitting on my Kindle waiting to be devoured. I think I'm going to have to pick some of the shorter ones and start ploughing through. Expect more than a few Casual Reader updates over the next while. Whilst on that subject, …

Hoorah! At last I have managed to not only keep up with the target, but overtake it and get a bit of a healthy lead. Another achievement this month is to have no gap longer than three days. That is something I am looking at working on reducing even further but I am slightly torn. This 5k route I have found myself is becoming routine but I think I would …